Total Replacement of the Affix Jas by the Substitute Śī The kaumudīs Interpretation of A 1.1.55 anekālśit sarvasya

The present article focuses on the replacement of the whole affix Jas by the substitute Śī , when it occurs after a sarvanāman (pronominal stem) ending in the short vowel -a , as taught by Pāṇīni in A 7.1.17 jasaḥ śī . Most commentators attribute the evocation of A 1.1.55 anekālśit sarvasya to the fact that Śī is marked with Ś , while Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita, on the other hand, attributes this evocation to the anekāl nature of śī . This paper analyses the commentaries previous to the Siddhāntakaumudī (SK) to understand when śī started being understood as anekāl , concluding that Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita did not abandon the tradition since this appears to be a fresh reinterpretation of Kātyāyana’s vārttikas .